Defending champions Ipswich stormed back to the top of the Elite League table with a stunning 58-32 victory over Eastbourne Eagles as Foxhall Stadium.

On a track made particularly grippy by the torrential rains which had hit the stadium overnight, the home side coped far batter than the visitors and victory never seemed in doubt once the first few races were run.

While Tomasz Gollob roared to a paid maximum and Chris Louis dropped his only points in the final heat, it was left to two of the lesser lights to steal the glory.

Savalas Clouting was a revelation, racing to his first unbeaten performance since he joined the club as a raw 16 year-old and reserve Jason Bunyan was also unbeaten by an opponent until his final heat.

Trailing by 16 points after heat eight, Eastbourne were conquered and it was now a case of piling up the points to make sure of at least the aggregate bonus point when the teams meet up again at Arlington tomorrow.

Victory again for the Witches will surely have them thinking that they are in with an excellent chance of retaining their championship, but they will need to show the same determined spirit as last night, for the Eagles will certainly be more difficult to overcome on their own tight raceway.

Ipswich: Chris Louis 10+3, Savalas Clouting 11+1, Toni Svab 8, Tomas Topinka 6+1, Tomasz Gollob 14+1, Brett Woodifield 1+1, Jason Bunyan 8+1.

Eastbourne: Martin Dugard 10, Josh Larsen 2+1, Peter Nahlin 7, Dean Barker 8+1, David Norris 1, Roman Povazhny 3+1, Brent Collyer 1.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.